I realize the word on the street among conservatives is that Obamacare is going to cost the country too much.  But that’s a big lie; it’s a pants on fire type of lie actually.  If you think Obamacare is going to add to the deficit – well … then you’re about to find out some truths that you were otherwise unaware of.

If we don’t do something about the increase in healthcare costs in this country …. our country will go broke.  Period.  In 2007 – the Commonwealth Fund wrote about our healthcare problems PRE-Obamacare HERE; see if you can figure out which country’s healthcare costs are way out of whack.

The U.S. spends 16 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on health care, compared with 8 to 10 percent in most major industrialized nations. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) projects that growth in health spending will continue to outpace GDP over the next 10 years. Wide variations in cost and quality across the U.S. underlie these national trends, indicating opportunities to increase efficiency.

It should be noted that Australia, Canada, France, the UK, and Germany ALL have socialized medicine.  Every single one of them.  You can find all of our articles on Obamacare HERE.

Reuters explains the impact repealing Obamacare would have on the budget HERE:

The United States pays more for healthcare than any other country, but about 50 million of the roughly 310 million Americans still have no insurance at all.

A number of states have balked at the law’s Medicaid expansion requirements, and any that decide to limit their coverage or opt out would get less federal money and see their rates of uninsured rise.

The CBO estimated that about 6 million fewer people than anticipated will be covered by Medicaid as a result of states that opt out, lowering the overall cost to the federal government.

The CBO also said that repealing the healthcare law – a move advocated by Republicans – would increase the deficit over the next decade by $109 billion. The law’s revenue increases and spending cuts total more than the cost of expanding coverage to the uninsured, the CBO said.

The Congressional Budget Office writes a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) explaining HERE:

Assuming that H.R. 6079 is enacted near the beginning of fiscal year 2013, CBO and JCT estimate that, on balance, the direct spending and revenue effects of enacting that legislation would cause a net increase in federal budget deficits of $109 billion over the 2013–2022 period. Specifically, we estimate that H.R. 6079 would reduce direct spending by $890 billion and reduce revenues by $1 trillion between 2013 and 2022, thus adding $109 billion to federal budget deficits over that period.

And that $109 Billion is just over the first 10 years while the government has to invest lots of money in start up costs.  The outer years are expected to save trillions.  Literally trillions.

We keep hearing this meme being parroted by conservatives and it goes something like this: “America has the best healthcare system in the world.”  My response … if you can afford it.  America spends more than double what the average country spends on its healthcare for its citizens … and our results are worse.  That’s not debatable.  It’s empirical and backed by fact based facts. We’ve shared this graph HERE:

And MSNBC puts this map together showing which states are likely to or not proceed with the Medicaid expansion that will cover all state citizens with insurance.  They write HERE:

Already, leaders in over the half the states have either flatly said they won’t participate in the expansion, or appear to be leaning against it. And many of those states are among those with the highest proportion of the uninsured. If those states stick to their guns, it would likely mean that millions of struggling Americans promised coverage under the ACA will be out of luck.

Some of the potential holdouts may ultimately come around. After all, states would spend only 2.8% more on Medicaid from 2014 to 2022 than they would have without the law, according to one study based on Congressional Budget Office (CBO) figures. And that doesn’t even take into account the savings states would realize in health-care costs for the uninsured. By opting out, states would be turning their noses up at a very good deal.

Comments

comments